FBI’s probe of Israeli company for spying digs up no evidence

"There was extensive investigation, and there are just not facts to support the allegation," one official was quoted as saying.

The New York Times reported Saturday that the inquiry focused on the Amdocs Corporation, a publicly traded corporation founded by Israelis. The inquiry failed to find any evidence that anyone at the company tried to listen in on government communications. Amdocs is the world's largest telecommunications billing company.

The article in Insight, a magazine published by the conservative-leaning Washington Times newspaper, said more than two dozen U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement officials had said the FBI believed Israel intercepted the most sensitive U.S. telephone and modem communications "on an ongoing basis."

According to the report, the investigation began after the Central Intelligence Agency became suspicious in late 1996 or early 1997 about activities of a subcontractor employed by an Israeli-based company, who had been working on phone-billing software and hardware designs for the CIA.

"The assertions raised in the Insight magazine article about Israel wiretapping government institutions in Washington are totally baseless. We do not spy on the United States of America," said Israeli Embassy spokesman Mark Regev.

In Jerusalem, Gadi Baltiansky, spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Barak, reiterated the denial, adding: "Israel does not carry out any spying activities of any sort in the U.S. or on its territory."

The U.S. intelligence community has been especially wary of potential Israeli intelligence and counterintelligence operations since former Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard was convicted and jailed for spying for Israel in 1986.